The present invention relates to a protective casing especially designed for packing an artillery shell which has a combustible sleeve and which is intended to be placed inside a container.
Artillery shells with combustible sleeves require special precautions as regards their packing for transport and storage. In fact, it is important to protect effectively not only the sleeve of such shells, which is a more delicate part than the sleeve of a conventional shell, but also to prevent the projectile part penetrating into the sleeve as a result of inertia, for example, in the case of an axial impact on the front or on the rear of the shell.
In Belgian Patent No. 887,840, a special packing suitable for packing combustible sleeves has already been described, this packing involving the use of a tubular sheet of kraft paper which, if necessary, is reinforced and arranged around the sleeve. This type of packing effectively protects the packed sleeve against lateral impact, but is not suitable for packing shells which have not only a combustible sleeve but also a projectile part of relatively large mass, which is connected to the sleeve.
French Patent Application No. 2,477,697 also describes a method of packing shells which have sleeves, involving the use of two moulded half-sections, for example, which are made of polyurethane and the inner surface of which matches the outer surfaces of the front of the sleeve and the rear of the rounded part of the shell which is smaller in diameter, as well as the use of a tubular section which surrounds only the half-sections and holds them together. Such a method cannot be used for safely packing a shell with a combustible sleeve, because it would not protect such a shell against the dangerous effects of an axial impact at its ends.